Cellular Network Infrastructure » Radio Access Network » OsmoBSC

when reading the config OsmoBSC resolves the neighbor relations between cells immediately.
So when writing 'neighbor bts 23', that cell must already exist and be configured.

Same for identifying a neighbor by Cell Global ID / LAC-CI etc:
the config parsing immediately resolves the id, and classifies it as local or remote BTS.
Hence a local neighbor BTS must already be configured beforehand.

A consequence of this is that the config file must first configure all cells,
and in another section below configure only the neighbor relations:

network
 # first set up all cells
 bts 0
  description my test BTS 0
  type sysmobts
  band GSM-1800
  ip.access unit_id 0 0
  location_area_code 23
  [...]
 bts 1
  description my test BTS 1
  type sysmobts
  band GSM-1800
  ip.access unit_id 1 0
  location_area_code 42
  [...]

 # neighbor relations
 bts 0
  neighbor bts 1
 bts 1
  neighbor bts 0

However, the 'write file' feature puts the neighbor relations back inline,
combining the two "config sections" and hence breaks the resulting config.

One solution would be to change 'write file' so that it puts neighbor relations in a separate section.
However, having to put neighbor config separately also potentially confuses users.
So a nicer solution would be to allow putting a neighbor relation in the config before that neighbor is configured.